Cartoon Network sends me screeners for their new shows and specials at least once a month, and I generally toss them straight into the trash to save myself the aggravation of watching contemporary TV animation. On a whim though, I decided to check out the latest one they sent for the new series CAMP LAZLO, set to debut July 8.

CAMP LAZLO was created by Joe Murray, whose earlier creation ROCKO’S MODERN LIFE aired on Nickelodeon in the mid-90s. He has spent the past few years pursuing children’s book illustration and other non-industry activities. The show is a graphic delight. The designs are crisp and appealing, and the animation is solid and moves nicely (with the occasional bit of creative action that is very funny, like the camp nurse who only rolls around in her swivel office chair without ever bothering to stand up). The strongest visual element in the show is the excellent art direction by Murray and art director Sue Mondt (POWERPUFF GIRLS), along with their crew of layout artists and bg painters, which includes SAMURAI JACK’s Dan Krall (check out his website to see some of his concept paintings for the show). The backgrounds are thoughtfully composed, and packed with inventive organic shapes and creative color schemes. The painting style uses a heavy textural approach, with a lot of visible “brush” and “colored pencil” effects, which seems perfectly appropriate to the show’s outdoor setting. It also shows that ‘modern’ backgrounds are possible without relying on the hard-edged geometric shapes that are so prevalent in designed animation nowadays.

The show owes a strong visual debt to Nick’s SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS. Some of the characters, like Slinkman and the Dung Beetles, look like they are designs taken right out of SPONGEBOB, but beyond these obvious examples, there is an overall graphic clarity and simplicity to the character designs that emits a heavy SPONGEBOB vibe. It’s not only in the design that the SPONGEBOB sensibility is felt, but many of the character expressions in LAZLO also look like they were taken directly from SPONGEBOB boards. This is not because the artists were copying Nick’s underwater series, but rather because many of the LAZLO artists are alumni of SPONGEBOB, including three of the show’s six storyboard directors: Kaz, Kent Osborne and Sam Henderson. The similarities to SPONGEBOB end however with the visual direction of the show; storywise and contentwise, unlike SPONGEBOB, CAMP LAZLO has minimal appeal and entertainment value for anybody outside of its target six-to-ten-year-old range.

CAMP LAZLO is an outright success artistically, but it falls apart where most other children’s animated series also tend to falter: specifically, annoying voice acting where too often speaking with a funny voice substitutes for acting, incessant dialogue, stock character types with underdeveloped personalities, and generally uninspired plotlines and storytelling. Fortunately, these elements are not offensively bad — say, on the excruciating level of a FAIRLY ODDPARENTS — but it is enough to prevent me from wanting to watch the show again.

It is incredibly perplexing to me that why, on a show with so many distinguished artists, the filmmakers feel the need to cover the artwork and action with wall-to-wall dialogue. Not even the talkiest Billy Wilder films have as much dialogue as some of these modern animated TV series. It’s not as if the characters are saying anything witty or having thoughtful exchanges of dialogue; they just yak, yak, yak, explaining every bit of action and every feeling they’re experiencing. On more than one occasion, I noticed a scene where the joke was purely visual, yet they had a character injecting a comment on top of the action. Not only was this unnecessary, but also incredibly distracting. For all the talking, it is ironic how little the show actually says. CAMP LAZLO lacks a strong point-of-view that compels the audience to make any type of emotional investment in the characters, or to feel one way or the other about their actions. In other words, it is typical, generic children’s TV animation. . . good-looking, but ultimately empty and unsatisfying.

Floyd Bishop at Bishop Animation does good work.

We just finished our latest short, “Opposites Jamboree”, an educational film. Kids tend to get a lot of things backwards or switched around. This short talks a little bit about opposites. It’s in the spirit of the old Sesame Street cartoons and borrows heavily from animation design from the late 50’s. You can see a portion of the film on the gallery page of our site bishopanimation.com. We used Maya 6.5 for this piece. It was a great break from chrome
spheres, lens flares, and checkerboard floors.

Triple Threat: Tweety, Barney and Shrek
Photo thanks to Harry McCracken

There was an interesting story in the LA TIMES yesterday about corporations trying to shut down Southern California pinata makers who produce counterfeit (and hilariously off-model) pinatas featuring the likenesses of popular cartoon characters such as The Incredibles, Winnie the Pooh, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob. The lawsuit was filed against two SoCal pinata makers, or pinateros, by Disney, Sanrio, Cartoon Network, Viacom and Hanna-Barbera. It’s too bad that corporations can’t take the enlightened position of MUCHA LUCHA creators Lili Chin and Eddie Mort, who are always ecstatic when they find unauthorized pinatas and other products related to their show. After all, unauthorized merchandise may be the truest indicator of a show’s success amongst the general public, and the long-term financial benefits of keeping the show in the public eye more than offsets the immediate loss of a few bucks to the private entrepreneurs. Alas, the studios are well within their legal rights to go after these pinata operations, and history teaches us that if a corporation can sue, it will.

UPDATE: Nathan Mazur writes:

I think you may have forgotten to incorporate a key piece of information in your latest post regarding the pinata lawsuits. While it is true that the “long-term financial benefits of keeping the show in the public eye more than offsets the immediate loss of a few bucks to the private entrepreneurs”, as copyright and trademark owners it is their legal responsibility to defend said copyright. There are some horribly gray areas in the U.S. copyright law that would allow “work” to casually slip into public domain unless the copyright is defended.

I figured that many readers may be thinking along similar lines — that if the studios don’t sue, they’re in danger of losing their copyrights to these characters. But though these pinatas are illegal, it’s a fallacy that the studios face any risk of having their work fall into the public domain because of such products. Corporations only frame the discussion in such a manner to mislead people into believing that they had no other option but to sue. Worth checking out is this article, “10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained”. From myth #5: “Copyright is effectively never lost these days, unless explicitly given away.” Another recommended bit of reading is this recent entry at BoingBoing.net. The reader comments in that post are very insightful. It’s worth noting that the pinata situation is clearly different from the cakes being discussed in that piece: those cake decals are drawings made by individuals for personal use; these pinatas are made by an unauthorized third-party for sale to the public. But the discussion of copyrights falling into public domain is applicable to both issues.

Digging through the archives today, I came across this two page article from a coverless magazine (I have no idea what publication or what year this is from) detailing the behind the scenes process of making a Betty Boop cartoon! If anyone can positively identify the people these photos, we’d greatly appreciate!

Here’s a sneak peak at Classic Media’s new Gerald McBoing Boing show for Cartoon Network, courtesy of Cookie Jar Entertainment

Disney will host a tribute to the late Joe Grant (1908-2005) on Tuesday night June 28th at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Leonard Maltin will host, and guest speakers (including Eric Goldberg, Mike Gabriel, Pete Docter, David Stainton, Don Hahn, Burny Mattinson, Dean DeBlois, Roy Disney, among others) will tell personal stories of their collaborations and encounters with the legendary storyman. “Pink Elephants on Parade,” “Baby Weems,” “Willie the Operatic Whale,” and “Lorenzo” will be screened.

Director Kent Butterworth (Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures) has informed us of his current project - and animated feature he created, got funded, and is currently in production on: Lord of the Beans.

Got animation back on the 1st 5 minutes of the movie, and I’ll be posting it as a Promo and showing at VSDA in Las Vegas next month. I’m pretty excited about this - there needs to be more independent cartoons made - Am I the only one trying to do this?

I don’t know how I missed this, but Steve Segal just pointed out the December 2004 issue of MAD MAGAZINE (with The Incredibles on the cover) which featured dozens of cameos (Brad Bird and Steve Jobs, above) of the Pixar staff - and then some. Two of the “unemployed hand drawn animators” look like my pals Eric Goldberg and Nancy Beiman (see below). The MAD spread is loaded with in-jokes and great digs at Disney. Well worth the effort to track down the back issue.